Tao Ling was caught off guard. Then, he looked back.
Wen Qingying released his hand, pointing at the wound on the side of his neck. He looked down at his phone to type.
Tao Ling came back to his senses and also took out his phone
The two of them raised their phones to each other at the same time——
“Mister, I still need to repay you the medicine fee.”
“Don’t worry, it was just a few band-aids.”
Tao Ling raised a faint smile, shrugging his shoulders.
It seemed that Wen Qingying was afraid the other party would turn around to leave in the next second. As such, he raised his arm to hold his wrist again, typing very quickly with his other hand: “Can I give you flowers instead if you don’t want the money?”
After pondering for a moment, Tao Ling nodded.
Wen Qingying’s eyes sparkled in an instant. Then, he finally released his hand and walked towards the door in big steps. He picked up a pot of Moth orchids from the row of flower stands that blocked the glass door before proceeding to turn around to stuff it inside Tao Ling’s arms.
“Hey, this is too valuable! The band-aids only cost a little!” Tao Ling frowned.
Seeing that there was an obvious hint of rejection shown upon Tao Ling’s face, the hands that Wen Qingying supported the flowers with froze for a moment. In the end, he slowly retracted them back. That bundle of bright, golden flowers rested against his chest.
He hung down his eyelashes, and suddenly his expression appeared a little dejected, lips slightly pursed.
Tao Ling’s heart softened. He thought, this makes it seem like I’ve bullied him.
After resisting for a good while, he started typing on the notepad again. Wen Qingying did not push it either. He stood still with a large flower pot in his arms, appearing as though he was wronged very miserably.
Tao Ling finished typing. Taking a quick peek, he passed the phone to him: “Orchids are too expensive, and it would be a huge pity if they die in my care. But if you really want to give me flowers, then I’d gladly have the Chinese roses instead. The flowerpot from before is fine.”
His face could still be regarded as peaceful. However, his attitude was stained with the usual solemness he wore in the office. Wen Qingying stared at him for a moment, as if trying to decide whether he should continue pushing it.
In the end, he put down the Moth orchids, and carried that pot of white Chinese roses from before.
Tao Ling took the flowers, whispering, “Your shop will definitely go bankrupt in less than two months with that flower-gifting attitude of yours.”
Wen Qingying seemed to know what he was mumbling about, thus wrote another line of words after handing him the flowers: “I don’t gift flowers to other people. Mister is the only one whom I’ve gifted flowers to.”
“Why?” Tao Ling raised his eyebrows. This question that popped up out of nowhere sounded a little playful. He looked at him, filled with curiosity.
The lip movement of this word must have been very easy to read. Wen Qingying had felt a trace of anxiousness when he was rejected a moment ago. However, right now, he suddenly regained his flawless composure.
The eyes he’d glued upon Tao Ling remained as sincere as before—while the corner of his lips drew back slowly, forming a slight curve.
“…”
A millisecond later, Tao Ling stepped out of the shop with a pot of miniature roses in his arms.
The autumn air was gradually becoming chillier and chillier. Yet the Chinese roses were still vigorously blooming. The petal that was damaged rubbed against Tao Ling’s chest like a butterfly stopping for a short rest.
Perhaps this will be the last swarm of butterflies for this autumn.
After taking a shower at night, Tao Ling turned on the computer. He worked on the courseware for his class lecture of the second half of the semester and wrote the paper he had to turn in for the academic conference simultaneously.
The Chinese roses were placed on the desk. As such, he would catch sight of them each time he looked up.
An hour later, his gaze became fixated on the roses the moment it landed upon them. He softly caressed a leaf as he pondered over how he should plan the learning content of his lecture.
“Nonclassical meditation and the early period of eremitism… how to adapt to the principles of witchcraft… tool elements in the witchcraft world… the importance of language perfection as to how witchcraft transitioned to religion. Language, language…”
What is the relationship between deaf-mute people and language?
Tao Ling frowned and was lost in thought. Then, his phone suddenly vibrated from the side, startling him out of his senses. His whole body couldn’t help straightening up, while his heart was about to jump out of his chest cavity.
After exhaling out a rough breath, he turned his head and saw the ID of the caller. It’s a shixiong1 he had known in the past. The former was currently teaching in S-Da.2 They have been studying under the same teacher for many years, and he’d always taken great care of Tao Ling.
1[师兄 means “senior male schoolmate,” but I won’t use its English translation as it’s too long and will also feel awkward when used in some scenes.]
2[Just like Sheng-Da, S-Da = “S-University.”]
Upon accepting the call, he heard the other end asking, “Tao Ling, are you busy?”
“Shixiong, I’m not. I was too immersed in a question I was thinking a moment ago, so I couldn’t hear the phone call.” Tao Ling adjusted his glasses, massaging the space between his eyebrows.
The other party laughed. “Are you staying up late again? Don’t put too much stress on yourself. I will be returning to Wuzhou tomorrow. Wanna have a meal with me after work?”
Tao Ling remained silent for a short while. Then, the other end said, “Don’t worry, there won’t be a lot of people coming with me. There’s only a colleague of mine. He’s not noisy either. We can choose a restaurant in front of the school if you’re busy.”
“That’s not good though. After all, you guys will be traveling from afar,” Tao Ling said.
“Come on, do you think I don’t know you well enough? Asking you to meet up with me is like asking you to hand me over your life. The farther I arrange the meetup place, the less likely you will come. It will just be the three of us. Tomorrow, I will be taking him to Shengnuxiang to have a look around there. Call me after you get off from work. You can order whatever you want to eat.”
“The west gate…” Tao Ling said, sighing halfway through his unfinished sentence. “Whatever, let’s go to that hotpot restaurant outside of the east gate. It’s been a while since the last time I have had any hotpot.”
“Cool,” his shixiong replied, “that settles it. See you tomorrow. No need to bring anything with you.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t intend to.”
His shixiong laughed, outspoken. “This is the kind of attitude I like from you.”
After hanging up, Tao Ling played around with his phone out of boredom. He slid and slid, and then somehow managed to open the notepad pre-installed in the system.
He doesn’t have a habit of clearing up his phone at his convenience. As such, the history of him talking with Wen Qingying for these past two days still remained.
He casually skimmed through it. In the end, his sight fell upon the Chinese roses again. Tao Ling suddenly felt that he was too childish.
Just now, he was too deeply entranced, indicating that his mind was wandering away with Wen Qingying. Tao Ling was already in his late twenties, though his behavior today inevitably became a little too much like that of a “young man.”
“All men like to look at beauties no matter their age.” The words Tao Jun said in the past were indeed right.
However, “liking to look at” and “liking” were two different things, after all. But Tao Ling was free, for he’d always belonged to the former one.
Tao Ling knew that tonight would be another sleepless night. Seeing that it was already 11 pm, he turned off the computer, opened the medicine he’d taken home, and after a moment of picking and choosing, he mixed in a packet of Gan Mao Ling with water before simply taking it with a Chlorpheniramine pill.
What happens if one takes Chlorpheniramine with a tranquilizer? Will the inhibitory effect of the central nervous system double?
Tao Ling sat on the sofa, pointing his toes in crossed legs. He pondered over a mess of things while waiting silently for sleepiness to come.
The next day when he came to school, Mr. Zhang asked as soon as he opened the office door, “Mr. Tao, did you brew another super-strong cup of coffee? The smell had even traveled down the hallway.”
Tao Ling replied, “Good morning, Mr. Zhang. I couldn’t sleep last night.”
Mr. Zhang joked, “You’re having insomnia at such a young age already? How can you be alright in the future when you enter your forties or fifties like me?”
“Mr. Zhang is in the prime of his life.” Tao Ling smiled, beginning his work.
“Look at this kid.” Mr. Zhang held his thermo cup, humming the “Qinghai-Tibet Plateau” tune as he leisurely sat down on his seat.
As always, his work was composed of scraps. Tao Ling was starting to feel irritated again the more he worked, thus he could only keep sipping on coffee. When he finished a meeting report and brought the cup to his lips again, he realized that it was empty already.
Screw this damn work.
How can Mr. Zhang do these tasks with such great pleasure?
Tao Ling turned his head to look at the canopy of the wutong tree outside, and then carried his cup to the pantry.
After getting hot water, he traveled down through the corridor in the atrium above the courtyard and arrived at the end of the religion studies hall.
At the flower shop entrance in the opposite street corner, Wen Qingying was currently busying himself with work. He wore a black hoodie and pair of jeans today, looking very youthful alongside that tall height of his.
Tao Ling leaned beside the window, and saw him organizing the daisies from the two buckets into one. Someone passed by and looked back several times.
Surely, those flowers are good at attracting bees and butterflies. Tao Ling raised a faint smile.
But for flowers that look too pretty, it’s still best to walk away after finishing glancing at them.
He turned around and left.
After getting off from work in the afternoon, Tao Ling did not head to the west gate like how he normally would. Instead, he passed through the whole campus and went in the opposite direction. Figuring he should still be a little more respectful, he called his shixiong only after reaching the hotpot restaurant.
Tao Ling found a place to sit down. After waiting for about ten minutes, he took a look at the menu before suddenly hearing someone calling out, “Tao Jun?”
The voice of the speaker was brimmed with surprise. Tao Ling was taken aback and turned his head.
Tao Ling was caught off guard. Then, he looked back.
Wen Qingying released his hand, pointing at the wound on the side of his neck. He looked down at his phone to type.
Tao Ling came back to his senses and also took out his phone
The two of them raised their phones to each other at the same time——
“Mister, I still need to repay you the medicine fee.”
“Don’t worry, it was just a few band-aids.”
Tao Ling raised a faint smile, shrugging his shoulders.
It seemed that Wen Qingying was afraid the other party would turn around to leave in the next second. As such, he raised his arm to hold his wrist again, typing very quickly with his other hand: “Can I give you flowers instead if you don’t want the money?”
After pondering for a moment, Tao Ling nodded.
Wen Qingying’s eyes sparkled in an instant. Then, he finally released his hand and walked towards the door in big steps. He picked up a pot of Moth orchids from the row of flower stands that blocked the glass door before proceeding to turn around to stuff it inside Tao Ling’s arms.
“Hey, this is too valuable! The band-aids only cost a little!” Tao Ling frowned.
Seeing that there was an obvious hint of rejection shown upon Tao Ling’s face, the hands that Wen Qingying supported the flowers with froze for a moment. In the end, he slowly retracted them back. That bundle of bright, golden flowers rested against his chest.
He hung down his eyelashes, and suddenly his expression appeared a little dejected, lips slightly pursed.
Tao Ling’s heart softened. He thought, this makes it seem like I’ve bullied him.
After resisting for a good while, he started typing on the notepad again. Wen Qingying did not push it either. He stood still with a large flower pot in his arms, appearing as though he was wronged very miserably.
Tao Ling finished typing. Taking a quick peek, he passed the phone to him: “Orchids are too expensive, and it would be a huge pity if they die in my care. But if you really want to give me flowers, then I’d gladly have the Chinese roses instead. The flowerpot from before is fine.”
His face could still be regarded as peaceful. However, his attitude was stained with the usual solemness he wore in the office. Wen Qingying stared at him for a moment, as if trying to decide whether he should continue pushing it.
In the end, he put down the Moth orchids, and carried that pot of white Chinese roses from before.
Tao Ling took the flowers, whispering, “Your shop will definitely go bankrupt in less than two months with that flower-gifting attitude of yours.”
Wen Qingying seemed to know what he was mumbling about, thus wrote another line of words after handing him the flowers: “I don’t gift flowers to other people. Mister is the only one whom I’ve gifted flowers to.”
“Why?” Tao Ling raised his eyebrows. This question that popped up out of nowhere sounded a little playful. He looked at him, filled with curiosity.
The lip movement of this word must have been very easy to read. Wen Qingying had felt a trace of anxiousness when he was rejected a moment ago. However, right now, he suddenly regained his flawless composure.
The eyes he’d glued upon Tao Ling remained as sincere as before—while the corner of his lips drew back slowly, forming a slight curve.
“…”
A millisecond later, Tao Ling stepped out of the shop with a pot of miniature roses in his arms.
The autumn air was gradually becoming chillier and chillier. Yet the Chinese roses were still vigorously blooming. The petal that was damaged rubbed against Tao Ling’s chest like a butterfly stopping for a short rest.
Perhaps this will be the last swarm of butterflies for this autumn.
After taking a shower at night, Tao Ling turned on the computer. He worked on the courseware for his class lecture of the second half of the semester and wrote the paper he had to turn in for the academic conference simultaneously.
The Chinese roses were placed on the desk. As such, he would catch sight of them each time he looked up.
An hour later, his gaze became fixated on the roses the moment it landed upon them. He softly caressed a leaf as he pondered over how he should plan the learning content of his lecture.
“Nonclassical meditation and the early period of eremitism… how to adapt to the principles of witchcraft… tool elements in the witchcraft world… the importance of language perfection as to how witchcraft transitioned to religion. Language, language…”
What is the relationship between deaf-mute people and language?
Tao Ling frowned and was lost in thought. Then, his phone suddenly vibrated from the side, startling him out of his senses. His whole body couldn’t help straightening up, while his heart was about to jump out of his chest cavity.
After exhaling out a rough breath, he turned his head and saw the ID of the caller. It’s a shixiong1 he had known in the past. The former was currently teaching in S-Da.2 They have been studying under the same teacher for many years, and he’d always taken great care of Tao Ling.
1[师兄 means “senior male schoolmate,” but I won’t use its English translation as it’s too long and will also feel awkward when used in some scenes.]
2[Just like Sheng-Da, S-Da = “S-University.”]
Upon accepting the call, he heard the other end asking, “Tao Ling, are you busy?”
“Shixiong, I’m not. I was too immersed in a question I was thinking a moment ago, so I couldn’t hear the phone call.” Tao Ling adjusted his glasses, massaging the space between his eyebrows.
The other party laughed. “Are you staying up late again? Don’t put too much stress on yourself. I will be returning to Wuzhou tomorrow. Wanna have a meal with me after work?”
Tao Ling remained silent for a short while. Then, the other end said, “Don’t worry, there won’t be a lot of people coming with me. There’s only a colleague of mine. He’s not noisy either. We can choose a restaurant in front of the school if you’re busy.”
“That’s not good though. After all, you guys will be traveling from afar,” Tao Ling said.
“Come on, do you think I don’t know you well enough? Asking you to meet up with me is like asking you to hand me over your life. The farther I arrange the meetup place, the less likely you will come. It will just be the three of us. Tomorrow, I will be taking him to Shengnuxiang to have a look around there. Call me after you get off from work. You can order whatever you want to eat.”
“The west gate…” Tao Ling said, sighing halfway through his unfinished sentence. “Whatever, let’s go to that hotpot restaurant outside of the east gate. It’s been a while since the last time I have had any hotpot.”
“Cool,” his shixiong replied, “that settles it. See you tomorrow. No need to bring anything with you.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t intend to.”
His shixiong laughed, outspoken. “This is the kind of attitude I like from you.”
After hanging up, Tao Ling played around with his phone out of boredom. He slid and slid, and then somehow managed to open the notepad pre-installed in the system.
He doesn’t have a habit of clearing up his phone at his convenience. As such, the history of him talking with Wen Qingying for these past two days still remained.
He casually skimmed through it. In the end, his sight fell upon the Chinese roses again. Tao Ling suddenly felt that he was too childish.
Just now, he was too deeply entranced, indicating that his mind was wandering away with Wen Qingying. Tao Ling was already in his late twenties, though his behavior today inevitably became a little too much like that of a “young man.”
“All men like to look at beauties no matter their age.” The words Tao Jun said in the past were indeed right.
However, “liking to look at” and “liking” were two different things, after all. But Tao Ling was free, for he’d always belonged to the former one.
Tao Ling knew that tonight would be another sleepless night. Seeing that it was already 11 pm, he turned off the computer, opened the medicine he’d taken home, and after a moment of picking and choosing, he mixed in a packet of Gan Mao Ling with water before simply taking it with a Chlorpheniramine pill.
What happens if one takes Chlorpheniramine with a tranquilizer? Will the inhibitory effect of the central nervous system double?
Tao Ling sat on the sofa, pointing his toes in crossed legs. He pondered over a mess of things while waiting silently for sleepiness to come.
The next day when he came to school, Mr. Zhang asked as soon as he opened the office door, “Mr. Tao, did you brew another super-strong cup of coffee? The smell had even traveled down the hallway.”
Tao Ling replied, “Good morning, Mr. Zhang. I couldn’t sleep last night.”
Mr. Zhang joked, “You’re having insomnia at such a young age already? How can you be alright in the future when you enter your forties or fifties like me?”
“Mr. Zhang is in the prime of his life.” Tao Ling smiled, beginning his work.
“Look at this kid.” Mr. Zhang held his thermo cup, humming the “Qinghai-Tibet Plateau” tune as he leisurely sat down on his seat.
As always, his work was composed of scraps. Tao Ling was starting to feel irritated again the more he worked, thus he could only keep sipping on coffee. When he finished a meeting report and brought the cup to his lips again, he realized that it was empty already.
Screw this damn work.
How can Mr. Zhang do these tasks with such great pleasure?
Tao Ling turned his head to look at the canopy of the wutong tree outside, and then carried his cup to the pantry.
After getting hot water, he traveled down through the corridor in the atrium above the courtyard and arrived at the end of the religion studies hall.
At the flower shop entrance in the opposite street corner, Wen Qingying was currently busying himself with work. He wore a black hoodie and pair of jeans today, looking very youthful alongside that tall height of his.
Tao Ling leaned beside the window, and saw him organizing the daisies from the two buckets into one. Someone passed by and looked back several times.
Surely, those flowers are good at attracting bees and butterflies. Tao Ling raised a faint smile.
But for flowers that look too pretty, it’s still best to walk away after finishing glancing at them.
He turned around and left.
After getting off from work in the afternoon, Tao Ling did not head to the west gate like how he normally would. Instead, he passed through the whole campus and went in the opposite direction. Figuring he should still be a little more respectful, he called his shixiong only after reaching the hotpot restaurant.
Tao Ling found a place to sit down. After waiting for about ten minutes, he took a look at the menu before suddenly hearing someone calling out, “Tao Jun?”
The voice of the speaker was brimmed with surprise. Tao Ling was taken aback and turned his head.
